Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

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The Precariat. The New Dangerous Class

Recent literature concerning regional development has placed significant emphasis on local institutional structures and their capacity to ‘hold down’ the global. Conversely, work on inter-firm networks – such as the global commodity chain approach – has highlighted the significance of the organizational structures of global firms’ production systems and their relation to industrial upgrading. In this paper, drawing upon a global production networks perspective, we conceptualize the connections between ‘globalizing’ processes, as embodied in the production networks of transnational corporations, and regional development in specific territorial formations. We delimit the ‘strategic coupling’ of the global production networks of firms and regional economies which ultimately drives regional development through the processes of value creation, enhancement and capture. In doing so, we stress the multi-scalarity of the forces and processes underlying regional development, and thus do not privilege one particular geographical scale. By way of illustration, we introduce an example drawn from recent research into global production networks in East Asia and Europe. The example profiles the investments of car manufacturer BMW in Eastern Bavaria, Germany and Rayong, Thailand, and considers their implications for regional development.

Globalizing regional development: aglobal production networks perspective

Thirty-three brothels in rural and small-town Nevada, which contain between 225 and 250 prostitutes, are legal or openly tolerated and strictly controlled by state statute, city and county ordinances, and local rules. Twenty-two of the brothels are in places with populations between 500 and 8,000, and the remaining eleven are in rural areas. The legal and quasi-legal restrictions placed on prostitutes severely limit their activities outside brothels. These restrictions in conjunction with historical inertia, perceived benefits of crime and venereal disease control, and the good image of madams contribute to widespread positive local attitudes toward brothel prostitution. Interactions between clients and prostitutes in brothel parlors are also restricted and limited to a few basic types which are largely determined by entrepreneurial philosophy. KEY WORDS : Nevada, Political geography, Prostitution, Restricted activity spaces.

ANNALS of the Association of American Geographers

The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy

The 2015 federal election changed the tenor of the debate about Canadian immigration policy in unexpected ways. The Liberal Party’s pledge to admit 25,000 Syrian refugees did not at first seem a vote winner; after terrorist attacks in Paris in November of that year, pollsters claimed that a majority of Canadians opposed Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s plans. At the same time, however, Trudeau’s promise seemed to resonate with Canadians eager to see their country lauded again – after the “dark days” of Stephen Harper’s government – as an upholder of human rights. By December of 2015, following the election and the Liberal Party’s victory, the same polls showed that the majority of Canadians favoured the policy of accepting Syrian refugees. This focus on refugees marked a change from one year earlier in the character of the discussion over migration policy. While the Harper government’s treatment of asylum seekers and refugees had garnered some attention beyond activist circles prior to the election, it was economic migration – in particular, the expansion of programs to admit temporary foreign workers (tfws) – that had received the most coverage in 2014 and 2015. The number of Temporary Foreign Worker Program (tfwp) work permit holders had increased from review essay / note critique

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Migration and the Canadian Labour Market

Abstract While differences exist in the organization of seniors care in Shanghai and British Columbia, both systems exhibit the simultaneous devaluation of, and reliance on, feminized labour. In this paper, we argue that COVID-19 highlighted underlying crisis tendencies built into the profit models in both increasingly privatized systems. The crisis of seniors care cannot be addressed without fundamental changes to the way care labour is valued, which in turn requires the true politicization of seniors care. This paper is part of the SPE Theme on the Political Economy of COVID-19.

Kendra Strauss

Papers

Migration and the Canadian Labour Market

Devalued labour, COVID-19, and the problem of profitability: crises of seniors care in Shanghai, China and British Columbia, Canada